Do we have the courage to vote for real CHANGE?

DJH: I admit there are a lot of things in life that irritate me. For example, I have a couple of close friends who generally espouse conservative opinions, but turn around and vote democrat year after year for there own selfish reasons.

One works for the government, belongs to a union, and KNOWS that the dems will ALWAYS give him more of OUR MONEY than the GOP will. I also have a couple of friends who have unusually high medical costs and vote dem because THEY WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO PAY FOR THEIR HEALTH CARE.

As true today as it was then!

Listen, I am a card carrying member of the Ayn Rand society; I think everyone should always vote for their FULL self interest, and my problem with the way my friends vote is that they are voting based on very narrow promises.

Those old greedy union pension deals are unsustainable and the dem pols who agreed to them knew it at the time they negotiated them. But they didn’t care because they knew they’d be long gone (enjoying their own government pensions) when these pensions went bust. So know my friend is starting to plan a retirement with the constant fear that the pension deal he’s been working for his whole life WILL BE CUT BACK at some point in the future.

Yes, Obamacare might end up with the rest of us picking up the tab for my other friends heavy health insurance tabs. But, is there any doubt that our grandchildren will pay more and end up with the kind of rationed healthcare people in Canada and England suffer from?

I frequently confront these friends with the ultimate cost of their selfish votes and they almost always rationalize their greedy behavior the same way — they say all politicians lie or all elections are corrupt, and I’m just a sap for believing my vote actually counts. Freud would have a field day with this brand of demensia.

A Courageous Plan

These same selfish friends are all throwing their hands up in the air over Obama’s reckless deficit spending; claiming there is no solution to the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into (that would be the mess they got us into by voting in promise, tax, and spend liberals).

True Profiles in Courage

I say no — there are solutions if we have the courage to CHANGE.

Today I found a great story on Bloomberg (of all places) that discusses Obama’s fiscal train wreck and then highlights senator Paul Ryan’s very couragious alternative; here are a few excerpts:

The U.S. debate over more government spending versus fiscal austerity is captivating the nation’s capital, dominating the airwaves and providing the best excuse in at least a millennium to recycle St. Augustine (“Lord, make me chaste, but not yet”).

What it has failed to do, with rare exception, is produce any viable alternatives. The choices are warmed-over Keynesian pump-priming or “passively waiting for disaster,” as Harvard University historian and business school professor Niall Ferguson put it on the July 4 edition of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

There’s got to be a better way… “radical fiscal reform” to address America’s entitlement problem — Medicare and Social Security will eventually consume the entire federal budget — and simplify the tax code by introducing a simple flat tax and a lower corporate rate.

Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and ranking member of the House Budget Committee, introduced his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” version 2.0, in January. (He proposed his first Roadmap in 2008.) President Barack Obama called it a “serious proposal” when he dropped in on the House Republican retreat.

Compared with the current fiscal crash-and-burn trajectory, the plan reduces deficits and debt, putting the federal budget on a sustainable path; results in stronger per-capita economic growth; puts Medicare and Social Security on a sound footing; and lowers health-care expenses while reducing the number of uninsured.

— The Congressional Budget Office

Ryan calls his Roadmap a prosperity plan, not an austerity plan that slashes benefits to the sick and needy and imposes growth-killing tax increases:

Anyone 55 and older will remain in the existing Medicare and Social Security programs. For those under 55, benefits will be means-tested and health-adjusted: The poor and sick will get more than the wealthy and healthy.

Even an individual’s initial Social Security benefits would be “progressive,” with more generous wage-indexing retained for low-income workers. The retirement age would increase gradually, as it should with longer life expectancy.

Individuals would have the option of investing a portion of their payroll taxes in personal-retirement accounts that they can pass along to their heirs.

Those qualifying for Medicare would be given a voucher to purchase health insurance, letting market forces create competition and lower costs.

The Roadmap provides a refundable tax credit and eliminates the tax exemption for employer-based health care.

Taxpayers would get to choose between filing their taxes the old-fashioned way (devoting endless hours to complying with or gaming the tax code, or paying someone else to do it for you); or they can file their return on a post-card equivalent, paying one of two flat rates with virtually no deductions or exemptions.

The Roadmap would eliminate the alternative minimum tax and replace the corporate tax with an 8.5 percent business consumption tax, making the U.S. more competitive globally and spurring faster growth.Full story: Bloomberg

This is only one plan (I have my own), but the point is, it is a freaking plan, which is more than Obama and his gang of mental midgets have produced. It’s also the kind of thinking we might just get if we elect fiscal conservatives in November.

Of course, if we do this, their will be one more major change: my friends might have to to pay the full cost of their pensions and healthcare.